
Glass r 2- ^ ^ 

Book 0*^ \\\ 



REPORT 



ON A SURVEY 

OF 



JACKSON CITY, D. C 

WITH A PLAN FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT. 

BY 

«k 

GEORGE \i . HUGHK.^:, 
u. s. CIVIL ea'gi^:eer. 



PRINT^i, ., . r\ G. I 
1837. 



, -^HBPORT, &c. 



Washington City, D. C. t 
August 25^/2, 1836. i 

jrENTLEMEN, 

At your request I organized a party of 
.Engineers to survey, under my instructions, the 
grounds recently purchased by your association, 
from Richard B. Mason, Esq. for a site of a new 
city on the Potomac River. Not having received 
any specific instructions from your board, nor being 
possessed of their viaws on the subject, I exercised 
my own discretion in regard to the mode of conduct- 
ing the survey, and have endeavoured to cause it lo 
be made in such a manner, that an accurate opinion 
of the position, detailed hydrographical and topogra= 
phical features, and its capabilities of improvement 
generally may be conveyed to those, who have never 
personally visited the site of the proposed city. 1 
have adopted the method commonly used by the 
Engineer Department in delineating the sites for 
works of fortification by supposing the surface of 
the ground to be intersected by horizontal planes, at 
every two feet of elevation above medium tide. The 
red lines, are the lines of level and survey, and the 
black curves, are the traces of the horizontal planes, 
intersecting the surface of the ground. The eleva- 
tions above tide are shown by red figures on the red 
lines, and by black figures on the curves. By means 
of these references, it is easy to determine by mere 
inspection, the elevation of any particular point 
above tide, or its relative position with regard to any 
other point. The red figures on the diverging lines 
from the high water mark, show the soundings 



reduced to the lowest water, observed during the 
survey. It is behoved tliat this plan cannot fail to 
convey, the most accurate and detailed information 
in relation to your purchase, even to its minutest 
features.: and will enable you to project on a map, 
such plans for a city as may best suit your views. 
I have refrained from suggesting any but general 
ideas in relation to a precise plan for a city, as it 
regards streets, squares, &c., in order to avoid con- 
fusion on the map, and will confine myself principally 
to the necessary improvements, preliminary to the 
building of a large commercial city. The map made 
from the survey is on a scale of 24 inches to the 
mile, and is intended to exhibit the minutest features 
of the ground on which it is proposed to found a 
city. The second map is on a scale of four inches 
to the mile, and shows the relative position of Jack- 
son City, to the other neighbouring cities and the 
various works of internal improvement in the District 
of Columbia. 

The property purchased by the Jackson City as- 
sociation is situated in Alexandria County, D. C, on 
•the Virginia side of the Potomac River, directly 
opposite the city of Washington. It consists of 
572 A. R. 23 P. including the area H. I. K. of 
land, divided into two unequal portions, by Gravelly 
or Flat Creek, through which the tide formally 
ebbed and flowed ; but since the erection of the 
dyke at tiie upper end, and the causeway at the 
lower end, this creek is seldom submerged, indeed 
never is, except in time of floods. It is however 
wet and marshy, producing a luxuriant growth of 
vegetation. The island formed by the creek and 
river, called Alexander's or Mason's Island, is an 
alluvial deposite of a deep and rich soil, and was no 
doubt at one time always covered by the Potomac, 
(and the high grounds south of the island formed the 
shores of the river,) but gradually arose, above the 
action of the tides by successive deposites of earthy 
and vegetable matter and a gradual diminution. of. 



water in the river from above Georgetown. The 
hiffest ffrounds on the island are but Httle more than 
eight feet cibove ordinary tide, and the average not 
more than four or five, so that the greater part of 
the island is subject to occasional inundations. If 
a city should be built on this site, the necessity of 
a levee to protect it from the floods is obvious. 

A large portion of the property amounting to 189 A. 
B R. 34 P.* is south of Gravelly Creek, on elevated 
ground, perfectly healthy, or will be rendered so 
by the preliminary improvements, and is abundantly 
supplied by numerous, and copious springs of cool 
and delicious water. It is principally cleared and 
was formerly cultivated as a farm, and like all the 
farms, in the immediate vicinity, has been exhausted 
by improper culture, but was naturally rich and 
productive, and is very susceptible of improvement. 

The morass of Gravelly Creek, is about 1000 feet 
wide, and may be easily rendered perfectly dry at 
no great cost, or converted into fine meadow land 
depending on the plan, which may be adopted for 
the city. 

An examination of the map suggests three plans^ 
or rather sites for the proposed city,. 

First, to build on Alexander's Island. 

Second, to build on the main land south of the 
island. 

Third, to build on both the island and main, mak- 
ing the commercial quarter on the river and the 
residences on the high ground. 

First plan — To build on the island. The most 
eligible plan on this supposition, is to erect wharves 
for the shipping below the bridge.. I have indicated 
in blue lines, the front line of wharfage in 1 2 feet 
water, with a view of dredging to such depth of water, 
as may be required, say 18 feet at low water or 22 
at ordinary high tide and filling with the mud thus 
excavated, between high water mark, and e/, leaving 

* The island consists of 196 A. R. 2 U P. ; on Gravelly Crcek. 
of 186 A. R. 08, P. 

1* 



6 

it an open \vliarf for the free flowing of the water 
between that hne and B C. The surface- of the 
mud filling should be covered a foot thick with clean 
gravel and sand to make it healthy. But if it be 
deemed advisable to attain deep water immediately 
without dredging, it will of course be necessary to 
carry out the line of open wharfage to 18 feet water. 
By extending from A to F 1300 feet, we shall have 
22 feet at high tide. Perhaps an intermediate line, 
wdll be found the most judicious. In either case 
2500 feet of wharfage wnll be obtained, and in course 
of time, when the wants of commerce may require 
more room, the wharves may be carried above the 
bridge to any necessary extent. 

ESTIMATE OF COST. 

For stone wall on f/, of dry masonry, 2500 
perches of rubble stone, for foundations, 
at 50 cents per perch, .... 1250 00 

7392 perches of dry masonry^ at $1 00 per 

perch, 7392 00 



For dredging on the curves between B & F 
60,000 cubic yards, at 25 cents per yard, 
including the filling behind e/, . . 15000 00 

25,000 cubic yards of gravel, at 25 cents per 

yard, 6222 00 



8642 00 



21222 00 



For protection wall along face of levee, from 

A to E, 6000 perches of rubble stone, at 

25 cents per perch, .... 3000 00 

5000 cubic yards of earth thrown up on in- 
side of protection wall for levee, at 12^ 

cents per cul)ic yard, .... 625 00 

For repairs and extension of dyke at head 

of Gravelly creek, ..... 350 00 

For expense of opening and grading 

streets, and draining low grounds, . . 1000 00 

Total, exclusive of wharves, ... 834839 CO 

4 or 5000 perches of stone thrown on the 
line AE, would soon reclaim that portion 
of the shoal lying between it and high wa- 
ter mark. 

Open wharf, 2500 feet long and 200 feet 
v.ide, . . . . . $140000 CO 

Open wharves 200 feet by 36, may be built 
for about S2000 apiece. 



7 

It is proposed to build this large wharf of eight 
lows of white oak piles, the piles in each row six 
feet- apart, to be braced together and capped, and 
the several rows connected with stringers, and these 
stringers covered with gum plank. This forms a 
solid but expensive work, and a less permanent 
wharf might be built for much less money. It is 
only necessary in the first instance to build out solid 
to the line ef, and then extend the open wharfage 
afterwards, as the wants of commerce may require ; 
one or two wharves extended to 18 or 20 feet water, 
would probably be amply sufficient for sometime to 
come, for large ships engaged in foreign commerce ; 
and generally 12 or 14 feel would accommodate the 
vessels employed in the coal trade, which w411 be 
the great business transacted on the Potomac, and 
will probably require all, or even more than all your 
wharfage for that purpose. 

The superiority of the Cumberland coal over all 
other Bituminous coals heretofore discovered, for 
every purpose to which coals are applied, has been 
established beyond all question ; and as it can be 
delivered in Baltimore, New-York, Boston, &c. &c. 
quite as cheap as any other coal, it will most likely 
in a great degree, supercede all other kinds of fuel ; 
for the use of the parlour, it is free from the objec- 
tions to which most other coals are liable, and is in 
fact productive of a more pleasant and cheerful fire 
than wood. In Allegany county, it is used univer- 
sally, and the people could not be induced to burn 
wood, if it were furnished free of expense ; and 
such it is predicted, will be the case in all the 
northern cities, and indeed on the v/hole Atlantic 
board, as soon as the peculiar qualities of this coal 
are well understood and fully appreciated. It is' 
believed that the Chesapeake and Ohio canals, a 
work of the largest dimensions in the U. S., 60 X 
6 feet, even with a double set of locks, will scarcely 
be able in a few years, to satisfy the demands, 



8 

wliicli will be made annually on the mineral treas- 
ures of Allegany ; and when tlie communication is 
open with the west, it will be inadequate to the 
wants of commerce. When this is the case, the 
Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, at all times an im- 
portant work, will become a most useful and power- 
ful auxiliary. 

But it is not coal alone that will be brought down 
the canal. Iron manufactured and in pigs, lumber, 
pork, beef, whiskey, wool, tobacco, grains of all 
kinds, lime, marble, &c. will constitute its descend- 
ing trade, while the wants of the w^est will be mainly 
supplied through the same channel. As this matter 
is now well imderstood, and as it is obvious that 
this immense trade will give active employment to a 
large amount of shipping, and a vast number of 
seamen and labourers ;. it is quite unnecessary for 
me to enlarge on the subject, for it is well known 
by all who are familiar with the wants of this trade, . 
that your whole line of wharfage, will be inadequate 
to its demands, when once in active operation. 

The second plan is to build on the high grounds 
south of Gravelly creek, on the main land.. 

There can scarcely be a more beautiful position 
for a city, than these grounds afford ; it rises gradu- 
ally from the river to the heighth of 144 feet ; but the 
general elevation t f the plair, is from 50 to 60 feet, 
and may be rendered perfertly healthy with the 
exception of the marsh of Gravelly creek, which it is 
proposed to remove or cover with gravel ; there is no 
low ground in the vicinity, and no cause whatever 
lo produce disease ; on the contrary its elevation 
and exposure are conducive to health and com- 
fort. 

The marsh of Gravelly creek, as has been stated,, 
is on an average about 1000 feet wide, and would 
be covered by every high tide, if it were not for the 
artificial means used to prevent the flow of the. tides 
over or through it. It is proposed to excavate a 
basin in this marsh 300 feet wide, (and fill up the 



9 

remainder above the actions of tides and floods,) 
and 20 feet deep at low water, which will admit 
vessels of the largest class engaged in foreign trade. 
By excavating a basin 2500 feet above the bridge 
or causeway on the turnpike, would give a wharfage 
of very nearly a mile in length, with ample room 
on both sides for the transaction of any amount of 
business ; along the basin on both sides, would be 
built the warehouses and magazines, receptacles for 
the various commodities of trade, while the elevated 
grounds more remote from the business quarter, 
are capable of accommodating an immense popula- 
tion ; and the adjacent country offers most beautiful 
and romantic sights for country residences, and 
elegant villas, while Alexander's Island might be 
converted into fine public grounds or useful gardens, 
to minister to the pleasures, comforts and wants of 
the citizens 

At the upper end of the morass, it would be neces- 
sary to excavate only wide enough to admit freely 
the canal boats from the river descending from 
Georgetown, to transfer their loads to large vessels 
in the basin. If the Alexandria canal, which is 
located through your grounds, should be completed, 
boats might cross the aqueduct in Georgetown, and 
tranship from a high level, which would be a great 
convenience in shifting the loads ; besides this, 
some arrangement might doubtless be effected witli 
the company, by which the surplus v/ater could be 
obtained for hydraulic power, (and there will be a 
great excess of water,) which could here be applied 
to great advantage for manufacturing purposes. 

By reference to the general map, it will be seen 
that a large shoal extends from the mouth of Gravel- 
ly creek to the main channel of the Potomac ; and 
in order to obtain access from it to the proposed 
basin, it will be first necessary to dredge out a 
channel, wide and deep enough, to admit vessels of 
large burden. After this communication has been 
opened, it will be in great danger of filling up again 



10 

wilh alluvial deposiles ; and works must be erected 
to prevent such consequences. For this object, it 
is proposed to construct a jeitee from the point C, 
and carry it out nearly parnllcl to the cut, for the 
purpose of retaining ihe earthly matter, w^ith which 
the water is always fully charged in times of floods, 
and thus filling up between D and C, and preventing 
such substances from being deposited in our new 
channel. This jettee will be about 7000 feet long ; 
a cross section will be a right angle triangle, formed 
of ^tw^o rows of white oak piles, driven 6 feet apart, 
capped and braced together and covered with 4 inch 
oak stuff. If placed at the point D, this jettee would 
have the effect of improving the general navigation 
of the river, and would therefore merit the liberal 
patronage of Congress. 

ESTIMATES. 

Canal for the largest size boats employed on 
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 2400 feet 
long by 45 X 6 feet ; 24000 cubic yards, 
at 12i- cents, . . . . . . 3000 00 

For guard lock at mouth of Gravelly creek, 1000 00 



4000 00 



BASIX. 

S500 feet long, 300 feet wide, and 20 feet 
deep at low water ; 630000 cubic yards, 
at 25 cents per yard, . ; . .157500 00 

Artificial channel to main channel of river, 
10000 feet long, 150 feet wide, and an 
average of 18 feet cutting, giving 20 feet 
at low water ; 1,000,000 cubic yards, at 
25 cents per yard, .... 250000 00 



-407500 00 



7000 feci (linear) of jettee, at $10 00 per 

linear foot, 70000 00 



or, 481500 00 

Allowing for Contingencies, Total, . . $500000 00 

The third plan may be said to be a compound o^ 
the tw^o first,^ erecting the wharves and warehouses 
for the accommodation of commerce below the 
l)iidgc on the river, where now at ordinary low tide, 
there is from 25 to 27 feet water ; connecting such 
portions of the island as are not required for building 



11 

into gardens and pleasure grounds, filling in ti 
marsh of Gravelly creek, and then building the prin 
cipal part of the city on the high, grounds, on the 
main land. This will perhaps prove to be the most 
economical and convenient plan for your contem- 
plated improvements, although the best plan, leaving 
the expense out of view, is undoubtedly the second 
one proposed. 

In addition to the estimates of the first plan, it 
will be necessary in this case to render the marsh 
of Gravelly creek dry, for which purpose We shall 
require 200,000 cubic yards of gravel at 12j cents 
per yard, $25,000, a large portion of which will be 
taken from the grading of the streets and from the 
gravel bank in the immediate vicinity of the marsh. 

The subject of a national foundry has for some 
time past excited public attention, and has been 
brought to the notice of Congress by the executive 
with an earnest recommendation to authorize the 
erection of such an establishment to meet the urgent 
wants of the government, and relieve it from the em- 
barrassments under which it labours in procuring 
proper ordnance, for the armaments of forts and 
ships of war ; and it is believed that Congress wall 
not long resist the urgent appeals made to it from a 
co-ordinate branch of the government on this im- 
portant subject, so intimately connected with the 
defence of the countr}^ If it should be determinec 
to establish a National Foundry in the District o" 
Columbia, it is behoved, that a better position fo 
that object than the property purchased by your as 
sociation cannot be found. Water power, if it be 
deemed most expedient to use it, can be obtained 
from the Alexandria canal, or, if that work should 
not be speedily completed, it can be procured from 
the Potomac at the great falls, through the depres- 
sions in the country back from the river. It has 
been asserted that steam is more economical for 
manufacturing purposes than water power, and it 
is contended that this is the result of many fair ex- 



12 

p^riments in large manufactories, but not having 
seen the details of these experiments, and not know- 
ing the circumstances under which they were tried, 
I am unable to express any opinion on the relative 
merits of the abstract proposition ; although I can 
readily imagine that under certain circumstances 
steam power will be the most economical, particu- 
larly when used in a position, where it is not neces- 
sary to open artificial means of communication to 
obtain access to markets, and where fuel is cheap. 
Many practical men prefer steam, which of course 
in the winter is the more controlable, certain and 
efficient agent, and its economy (if it exists) may 
consist in using the waste steam in heating the esta- 
blishment. The best Bituminous coal can be ob- 
tained in the greatest abundance from Alleghany, at 
a cost not exceeding $3 50 per ton, and large beds 
of iron ore are known to exist in the same region, 
but the quality of the iron wdiich they will yield, 
particularly as regards the fabrication of ordnance 
cannot be known, till they have been reduced and 
experiments made with the metal ; but no doubts 
can exist in relation to the Antietam ores, which arc 
the best in the known world for cannon, possessing 
within themselves all the ingredients necessary to 
constitute the very best gun metals. The loss from 
the strictest proof at the Columbian Foundry where 
these ores are used, is not on an average over one 
per cent, and frequently less, while at other foun- 
dries it is sometimes as high as 25 per cent, and 
even higher. I have seen specimens of granite 
which I was informed was procured within three 
or four miles of your purchase, of a remarkably fine 
quality, and it is said to occur in large quantities, 
and of course could be furnished cheap for build- 
ings. Excellent soap stone is known to exist in 
large beds not far from Georgetown. 

Jackson City, from its position, will possess pe- 
culiar and important advantages for trade. It is 
connected with Washington City by a new and free 



13 

National bridge. The turnpikes to Alexandria and 
Fairfax court-house pass through it, and it is also 
intersected by the road from Georgetown to Alex- 
andria, and by the location of the Alexandria canal. 
The rail-road from Richmond to Fredericksburg is 
nearly completed, and surveys have been made with 
a view to its extension to Alexandria and Washing- 
ton, in which case, its terminus will be Jackson 
City, and will open a direct communication with the 
James river improvements and the southwestern 
works ; and thus attract a large portion of the rich 
cotton crops of those fertile regions to Jackson City, 
where a transfer of tonnage must necessarily take 
place, and thus of course confer a great advantage 
on that locality for the cotton trade. The great 
thoroughfare of travel between the north and south, 
southwest, will be through Baltimore and the Dis- 
trict cities, when the works at present under way 
are completed ; and it is probable that many years 
will not elapse, before a direct^ communication by 
means of rail-roads will be open between the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and New Orleans, and the former 
will become the recipient of the advantages which 
will result from those great works, which Vv^ll em- 
brace a large portion of the middle, western, and. 
southwestern parts of the Union, and converge upon, 
her as a common centre. 

The position which you have selected for a nevv- 
city may be said to be at the head of natural naviga- 
tion for vessels of large size, for between George- 
town and the Potomac bridge, obstructions are con- 
stantly accumulating, and under present circum- 
stances must continue to accumulate, which will 
render it impossible, unless the channel is annually 
dredged out, or some other plan adopted to prevent 
the yearly alluvial deposits from taking place, for 
vessels engaged in foreign trade to reach George- 
town, although there is 27 feet water at ordinary 
low tide at the Virginia draw of the bridge. Last 

2 



14 

year ilie shoal in the Georgetown channel below 
Analostan island was removed by the liberality of 
Congress; giving 15 feet water, where formerly 
there was but seven feet, but I am informed it has 
already filled in at least three feet, which will ren- 
der the operation of dredging a constant or useless 
task ; for the same uniform laws, which formed the 
shoal which has been removed, must continue, un- 
less modified by artificial means to produce similar 
results.* In a report which I had the honor to pre- 
pare in 1834, the detailed operatirns of the natural 
means by which these shoals were formed are ex- 
plained. In the Washington City channel there is 
only seven or eight feet water at low tide at the 
draw. The last great flood has deepened the Vir- 
ginia channel opposite the arsenal, I am informed 
to 1 7 feet at low water. The terminus of the Che- 
sapeake and Ohio canal is on the Potomac at 
Georgetown, nearly opposite the mouth of Gravelly 
creek. The high |^-ounds on the Washington and 
Georgetown side of the river, Analostan island, and 
the causeway of the bridge, form a beautiful and 
commodious harbour for canal-boats to pass to and 
from the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, and your pro- 
posed canal and basin in Gravelly creek. Between 
the Bridge and Alexandria it would be exceedingly 
dangerous at almost any season of the year, to 
attempt to navigate the river with canal-boats. So 
tiiat Jackson City may be considered as the point 
of union (as an inspection of the map and chart vv^ill 
show) of river and canal navigation; and seems to 
spread out its bosom to receive the rich productions 
v.'hich are destined to descend the canal, and to har- 
bour the larger vessels in giving value to those pro- 
ductions, by ti-ansporting tliem to markets and in 
exchange bringing back rich merchandize for con- 
sumption in the far west. 

* The chart of the river shows the state of the obstruction in 
1332, before the chainiel was dredged out. 



15 

At the present time the course of trade seems to 
be unsettled, by the universal efforts in every section 
of the union to attract capital, by opening nevvr chan- 
nels of intercommunication, but there is not most 
assuredly, any avenue to the west, so well calculated 
to attract and retain trade, as the Chesapeake and 
Ohio Canal to Cumberland, and a rail-road from 
thence across the mountains (many intelligent per- 
sons believe that in less than 10 years there will be a 
continuous Canal communication from the Potomac 
to the Western waters ;) and it requires not the 
spirit of prophecy to foresee, that at the terminus on 
the Atlantic coast of that magnificent and truly 
national work, a great commercial city with a large 
population and corresponding capital must grow up ; 
and that its prosperity can be checked by no ordinary 
cause. 

New Orleans is an example of the irresistible 
operations of the laws of commerce in overcoming 
the most formidable natural obstacles — quite as 
irresistible as the will of the Russian Autocrat, at 
whose imperial fiat, a great capital sprung into ex- 
istence from the swamps of the Neva. 
I have the honor to be. 
Sir, 
Your obedient servant, 

GEORGE W. HUGHES, 

U. S. Civil Engineer, 



iKJp'IO 



